The newborn theatre group Flying V is already coming of age. Their first production Become What You Are – a world premiere by local playwright Augie Praley – tackles the questions we all faced as children and adolescents as we took each new, terrifying step toward adulthood. The play runs one weekend only at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda.

The cast of Become What You Are

Comprised of three short plays, Become What You Are seeks to capture the charming, awkward, lonely, and funny ways we start to become aware of the world around us.

“I absolutely love this show,” says Jason Schlafstein, Flying V’s Producing Artistic Director. Schlafstein is also co-directing the play. “Augie writes at the intersection of big ideas and intimate moments, with a tremendous wit and enormous need packed into a compact frame. I’m thrilled to be doing this piece as our inaugural production, especially with such a talented group of hungry young actors who have really shown their ability to dive in and to relate to this material.”

Become What You Are features Aaron Bliden, Blair Bowers, Edward Daniels, Katie Nigsch-Fairfax, Kristen Garaffo, and Michael Saltzman. Each playing multiple roles, the ensemble brings us into the world of a curious 7-year-old at a tea party gone horribly awry, of two pre-teens navigating a relationship within seven minutes of would-be heaven, and of

Playwright Augie Praley

a boy named Augie who really needs to stop worrying and love himself (literally).

Schlafstein’s most recent projects include Freud Meets Girl with Wayward Theatre and The Odd Couple at Theater J. He founded Flying V as a commitment to producing new plays that carry a distinct voice and style, and which are fun, vibrant, and full of high-impact theatricality and fearless content. Colin Gruebe, Schlafstein’s co-director on Become What You Are, works as Production Manager for Adventure Theatre.

Praley’s plays include The Perfect Chocolate Milkshake (part of Capital Fringe 2010), Concrete Memories of Phallic Earth, and a newly devised work titled euphoria: something better is coming. He most recently played the title role in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown with No Rules Theatre Co. and will appear onstage again in June in bobrauschenbergamerica with Forum Theatre.

Become What You Are
Written by Augie Praley
Directed by Jason Schlafstein and Colin Grube

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About Hunter Styles

Hunter Styles is the Artistic Director of Artists Bloc, a locally-focused workshop and presentation series for early-development performing arts pieces. He has written plays produced by Rorschach Theatre, Forum Theatre, Wayward Theatre, Flying V, and Grain of Sand. He received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for co-directing the Andy Warhol musical POP! at The Studio 2ndStage and has directed and assistant directed with Theater J, Rorschach Theatre, Synetic Theater, Doorway Arts Ensemble, Georgetown and American universities, and more. He is currently a staff member at Signature Theatre in Arlington and a company member of Factory 449. He has been writing for DC Theatre Scene since 2008 and for American Theatre magazine since 2012.